Friday Fun: Horsing Around With Music

This edition of Friday Fun is all about horsing around with music. That is, bands or songs that bring our equine friends to the forefront. My own musical taste is so varied and random it's hard to put into words. At various stages of life I could have been labelled a Cure head, Emo or a Britpopper.

I have a running gag with friends where I rail on about how New Order are the greatest thing to ever have happened to music, including why they are more important and influential than the Beatles.

Truth be told, I grew up in an Irish household with a father who could get up on stage at the local and belt out a tune. His favourites were George Jones and Hank Williams. I listen to all that old country stuff as well. While fads and styles of music come and go, it's country music and its derivatives that I always return to.

However, that's not what this post is about. This post is about music and horses. Let's get at it.

An Horse- This two person indie band hails from Brisbane, Australia. Their grammatically-challenged name raises a smile each time I recommend them to a friend. Gritty and cool - head directly to iTunes and purchase!

Here's An Horse playing Camp Out on the roof of the Cooper Square Hotel in New york City


Band of Horses- Another indie band with a horsey name. Reverb and effects mashed together into one driving wall of music.

Band of Horses perform the haunting Is There A Ghost on the Letterman show


England's Kempton Park race course asked the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to give a recital at its finishing post with an eye (and an ear) to inspiring the horses to race faster as well as entertain fans.

On July 8th, the orchestra played the "William Tell" Overture, the "Lone Ranger" theme song, during a horse race. The experiment was both a success and a failure as winning horse Action Impact covered that one-mile, three-furlong course in two minutes and 20.34 seconds, more than two seconds off the record pace. Fans were delighted all the same.

Here's some footage from the odd experiment with music and horse racing


If you live in New York, you can catch Jessie Murphy In The Woods on Saturday July 25th at Passout Records in Willaimsburg. JMITW are a trio of local ladies who proclaim, "We don't sign in unison. We sing in unicorn." With odd song titles such as When I Am A Horse Again and God Save Owen Wilson you're likely to be well entertained.

Jessie Murphy In The Woods performing their ode to Eight Belles






Online music shop CD Universe offers an album entitled Great Songs About Horses.



Featured on the album are songs such as Mr Ed, Tennessee Stud and The Old Grey Mare. Hmmm...

Critically-acclaimed Ben Kweller is soon to release an album entitled, Changing Horses that promises to take on a country-esque style.

Check out the twangy single Fight from the new Kweller release Changing Horses


On the opposite end of the musical spectrum is the industrial tones of Coil. In 1986 they released an album entitled Horse Rotorvator founded on a theme of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In existence from 1982 until recently, their longevity is impressive though their music may be off the beaten path from what most horsemen enjoy!

Coil performing the traditional lullaby All The Pretty Little Horses


It gets weirder. California is home to Horse The Band who play aggressive heavy metal interspersed with video game effects. The genre is known as Ninetendocore and features a keyboard designed to replicate 8-bit video game music/chiptunes.

If you enjoyed playing The Legend of Zelda, there's still no guarantee that you'll like this


On a more traditional note, the Rolling Stones had one of their biggest hits with the love song Wild Horses. It's been covered numerous times and even if you're not a fan of the Stones you've learned all the words to this single by now.

Rolling Stones getting a bit weepy with Wild Horses


Let's end this one on a happy note. It is meant to be Friday Fun after all. Ernie Munick is a blogger, writer, handicapper and musician based at racetracks across New York. If you're on Facebook, you should be a member of Munick's Thoroughbred Racing in New York.

If you're at Saratoga for either of the twilight days (first and last Friday of the meet) or for Travers Day, you'll find Munick entertaining the punters with his unique brand of music and racing trivia.

Ernie Munick belts out the Belmont Park Boogie


Rock on horse lovers. Have a great weekend!